Israel continued its bombings on the Gaza Strip on Thursday, notably hitting a crossing point in the south of the Palestinian territory, against a backdrop of negotiations to obtain a truce in the conflict opposing Hamas and allow the delivery of more humanitarian aid.
According to the government of the Palestinian movement Hamas, Israeli planes struck the Karam Abou Salem crossing point (Kerem Shalom, Israeli side in Hebrew) between Israel and the Gaza Strip, killing four people, including its director Bassem Ghaben. Asked by AFP, the Israeli authorities did not react immediately.
Israel approved on December 15 the “temporary” delivery of aid to Gaza through this border post, thus opening a new supply route in addition to the main one, the Rafah crossing point in the south. between Egypt and Gaza.
Israel has promised to destroy Hamas, classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel, in retaliation for the unprecedented attack carried out on October 7 by the Islamist movement on its soil, which killed around 1,140 dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on the Israeli toll. Around 250 people were also taken hostage, of whom 129 are still detained in Gaza, according to Israel.
The Hamas government, for its part, announced Wednesday that Israeli military operations had left 20,000 dead in Gaza since the start of the war, including at least 8,000 children and 6,200 women, a toll described as a “dramatic and shameful milestone” by the Hamas government. UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths.
Rocket fire
On the ground, the Israeli army, which has lost 137 men since the start of its ground operations on October 27, assured Thursday that its air force had struck 230 targets in Gaza over the last 24 hours in the Palestinian territory.
On the ground, its soldiers discovered weapons in a school in Gaza City, also indicated the Israeli army, which regularly accuses Hamas of using civilians as “human shields” and of hiding its fighters or its centers. of command in schools or hospitals, which the Palestinian Islamist movement denies.
A rocket attack, described by Hamas as a “response to the Israeli massacres of civilians”, also led to the triggering of sirens in southern Israel and Tel Aviv on Thursday. In the latter city, the police announced that they had recovered debris from these rockets, but did not report any casualties.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, for its part, called for the opening of an investigation by Israel into “the possible commission of a war crime” by its armed forces in Gaza, saying it had received “disturbing reports” regarding the deaths of “11 unarmed Palestinian men” in Gaza City, accusations described as “defamation” by an Israeli official speaking on condition of anonymity.
“They all have to go back”
On the diplomatic front, efforts are continuing on several fronts to try to achieve a new truce.
A first one-week break at the end of November allowed the release of 105 hostages and 240 Palestinians held by Israel and the delivery of aid to the Palestinian territory subject to a catastrophic humanitarian crisis.
Ofir Engel, 18, himself a former hostage released during this truce, participated Wednesday in a ceremony with relatives and families of hostages in Kibbutz Beeri, the site of his kidnapping during the October 7 attacks.
“One of the most difficult moments was when the terrorists plunged us into total darkness, with bombs constantly falling all around us,” he said. “I was there and every moment the hostages are there, they are in danger. […] They all have to go home now. »
As part of ongoing negotiations, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh visited Cairo on Wednesday and Ziad al-Nakhala, the leader of Islamic Jihad, another Islamist movement which fights alongside Hamas and holds hostages, is expected to ‘go there next week too.
At the same time, Israel is in dialogue with Qatar and the United States to try to reach a truce allowing the release of hostages.
But the positions of the two camps still remain very far apart: Hamas demands a complete cessation of fighting as a prerequisite for any negotiation on the fate of the hostages, and Israel is open to the idea of a truce but rules out any ceasefire. before the “elimination” of Hamas, in power since 2007 in Gaza.
“Humiliation”
Tough negotiations must also continue on Thursday at the UN Security Council, which has postponed since the beginning of the week a vote on a resolution intended to accelerate the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, but likely to be a new American veto if it uses too strong terms.
The United Nations services continue to warn of the deep humanitarian crisis shaking Gaza. Half of the population there suffers from extreme or severe hunger, and 90% are regularly deprived of food for an entire day, according to the United Nations agency responsible for humanitarian coordination (OCHA).
The war has caused immense destruction in the territory, most hospitals are out of service and 1.9 million people, or 85% of the population, according to the UN, have fled their homes.
“After three days (of war, editor’s note), the bombings started near our home and our house was damaged. We had to leave to find a safe place,” Fouad Ibrahim Wadi, who now lives with his family in a greenhouse set up to accommodate displaced people in Rafah, explains to AFPTV.
“We went to Khan Younes, after which we received the order to evacuate. We found ourselves at the European hospital and, day after day, the strikes continued unabated. We did not know where to sit or where to sleep, so we came to Rafah,” he continues, calling for “an end to this humiliation.”
The situation in Gaza is also fueling tensions in the region, particularly in the occupied West Bank, on the Lebanese-Israeli border, or in the Red Sea, where Yemeni Houthi rebels threaten ships they consider linked to Israel.
On Thursday morning, the Lebanese National News Agency said an octogenarian woman was killed and her husband injured in an Israeli bombardment on a border village in southern Lebanon, from where Hamas ally Hezbollah launched several overnight attacks on Israel.